and vaughn hillyard in arizona. let's get straight to lyanne for more on where we can see signs of whether it's a blue or red wave today. >> reporter: sure, marlie. well, it's finally election day. there's a lot of people who have been waiting for this day, not just us as journalists, but voters as well. and it is evident in the fact that 35 million people have already taken to the polls and voted. that's approaching presidential level years. what that is showing us is that enthusiasm is super high among republicans and democrats, they're breaking re so wha d mean? we do noah corresponding to the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll the democrats do have an advantage heading into election day. there is a 7-point advantage among democrats, but we also do know that it comes down to individual races, and that's really what's going to matter. and the voters that go to the ballot boxes in the districts in states across the country, what we're going to be watching tonight is that democrats will have a good night if

vaughn hillyard, call your mom with that. with me, white house reporter jonathan lemere, nbc news contributor dave wasserman. and in washington, correspondent for pbs news hour contributor yamiche alsindor. thank you for being here to kick off what's going to be an historic week. dave wasserman, you live and breathe specifically races in the house of representatives which is going to be our big story on tuesday night. whether or not democrats will take control. and if so, how wide that is margin going to be? and my first question for you is, make us a little smarter. what are you looking for right now that perhaps we've missed in all of this? >> i think fundamentally a couple things have happened in the last month or so. we've seen the enthusiasm gap narrow for democrats as republicans have come home. surprise, it turns out that these cultural touchstones like the migrant caravan and the kavanaugh fight are better suited for motivating the trump base than tax cuts, which fell flat in a lot of the special elections earlier thi

road warrior vaughn hillyard has made his way to mississippi.art of the cattle country, that is octoc, mississippi. the special election in the wake of the retirement of cochran, what can we expect? any candidate expected to reach that 50% threshold to avoid a runoff, and what are you standing on? >> reporter: good afternoon, chris. we're standing on a bale of hay here in mississippi. a lot of mississippi is very rural-based. a lot of it is very agricultural based. that's what led us to this cattle operation. i'm going to introduce to you in a moment, david magee. he says he's going to be voting for chris mcdaniel who is that kind of insurgent republican. he calls himself the constitutional incumbent cindy hyde-smith who was just appointed to her position back in the spring. and then there's the democrat, mike espy who was the former agriculture secretary under bill clinton and former democratic congressman. wi only the top two on tuesday are going to make it out of it and they will go head to head in a runoff. mcdaniel voters like david magee h

vaughn hillyard joining me now from lion mississippi. dani daniel strauss is also with me.did espy just tell you? >> reporter: yeah, good morning, craig. i just talked to secretary espy essentially about the debate in which cindy hyde-smith said to all of those who are offended she certainly apologized to those individuals about the comments she had made and the tape that was released in which she referred to sitting in the front row for a public hanging. i want to play you that soundbite of mike espy here in mississippi responding to her apology. >> i try not to judge people. i only heard what i heard, and when i begin to hear that coming out of her mouth, i looked and she had her head down and she was reading it. my mother always told me that when you apologize to someone you look them in the eye. you tell them that you're sorry and you offended them and you try to make reparations if you can. so i can't judge her sincerity. >> craig, talking to a large number of black voters here across the state over the last couple of days, there's been a -- i think you could call it a

vaughn hillyard just back from arizona. and it seemed as if jeff flake's senate seat was going to remain republican. the president sounding dubious of the senate vote there as well. this is president trump last hour. >> now in arizona all of a sudden out of the wilderness they find a lot of votes, and she's -- the other candidate is just winning by a hair. >> what's happening in arizona? >> well, the president doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to arizona elections right now. they didn't find ballots in arizona. these ballots are well-documented. we know where they are. these are early ballots we're talking about. there's essentially two buckets being counted right now, bucket a, early ballots that were turned in friday through monday. these were expected to go in sinema's favor. high democratic turnout. those were the ballots announced last night. more of those ballots are tonight. we expect her to expand that lead beyond the 9,000. then there will be bucket b, it will be interesting to see what he says abo

it's why nbc's vaughn hillyard is in jackson, mississippi, outside a walmart there.om folks on the ground? >> reporter: the question is is mississippi looking at a similar outcome to what republicans ultimately went through back in 2017, that special election versus doug jones and roy moore. over the last 24 hours from talking to folks on the ground here hallie, as well as making phone calls to a lot of particular republican voters that i met over the course of the year here covering this race in mississippi, i don't think at this point we are seeing that ground swell of republicans that are leaving the campaign of cindy hyde-smith behind. the question is over the next seven days as more companies like walmart pull out, there's 85 stores here across the state, and we are talking to voters. the attention is on those old video clips here of hide smith from those last few weeks that are controversial, and when we've been talking to particular those republican voters, a lot of them are telling us it was offputting. it has not put the state in the right light. at the same

rehema ellis and vaughn hillyard are at polling places in ridgeland, mississippi. vaughn, let me start with you. what are you hearing from voters there? >> reporter: yeah, good morning, craig, this is a suburb just outside of jackson here. it's quite a diverse group of voters that are coming in and out and ranging from mike espy voters to cindy hyde-smith voters and a lot of individuals that won't tell us how they're voting. i do want to play you two different soundbites with two voters who at least one of them used to vote republican, and one of them as you'll hear plans to do just that here today. this is them. >> she's not as strong as i would like to see the senator be, but the stuff on the race that they kept dragging up to me was phony. >> did that make you more inclined to vote for her? >> no. >> mikes by. >> do you usually vote democrat? >> i vote my heart and who i think is the best. i'm more of an independent, moderate. >> mike espy actually just left this polling location just few minutes ago after casting his own ballot along with his wife, craig, and he

joining me now is vaughn hillyard who is on the ground in jackson, mississippi. and vaughn, get me up to speed here. there was the first and only debate between the two contestants in this runoff race. the republican candidate did address the blowback that she'd gotten. how has that changed the conversation as we head to this election day on tuesday? >> good morning, david. the question was with the runoff just the tuesday after thanksgiving, where would mississippian's attention be, the focus be, especially in a place that donald trump won by 18 percentage points in 2016. but it was that public hanging comment that is on the forefront of voters' minds. we've been here over the last week. every voter you talk to that has been the topic of conversation. this is the state that has a deep dark history of racism dating back to the jim crow era. that's where the comments from cindy hyde-smith, when we were talking to voters across the state about one-third of the voting electorate are african-american voters. when we've had our conversations here across the state from

. >>> i'm vaughn hillyard in prescott, arizona.was these steps where barry goldwater in 1964 announced his presidential bid. this was also a place, a county that donald trump won by 30 percentage points in 2016. and a place that martha mcsalley will need to rely on high voter turnout in order to pull out a victory on tuesday. she campaigned in prescott today and it's going to be these steps she campaigns tomorrow night in her last event before polls open on tuesday. >> vaughn hillyard there in prescott, arizona, covering a senate race getting its fair share of national attention. but it is nothing compared to what we've seen in texas. beto o'rourke and ted cruz have been criss-crossing the state ahead of election day. like in so many races across the country, the issue of immigration has been a constant source of tension. garrett haake has been all over the great state of texas covering ted cruz and beto o'rourke and joins me now live. garrett, i watched you on "meet the press" this morning answering chuck todd's question and i wan

road warrior van hilliard is -- vaughn hillyard is joining us in maricopa county. >> reporter: good morning, hallie, those are two numbers i want to throw out. the first one was that more than 60% of the electorate lives here in maricopa county. if you ever ever been to phoenix, you'll see just how vast the city is. if you want to talk about suburbs, phoenix is the place of suburbs, just suburb after suburb after suburb, and those are the very types of individuals moderate republicans, independent voters that martha mcsally needs to hold on to. kyrsten sinema, we have had conversations with folks that told us they were looking to vote for kyrsten sinema because she played that bipartisan role where as martha mcsally has taken the stance alongside campaigning with donald trump, with don jr., with mike pence. the other number i wanted to throw out is 75 to 85% of arizonians have cast their ballot, and that is why at 8:00 p.m. locally here on tuesday night is when the numbers should drop and we should have a really good sense of how close this race is. the maricopa county here, mitt romney won

it's our own vaughn hillyard is there in tempe for us. and, vaughn, this is very, very close and in many ways democrats think if they can't win an arizona senate seat this time, when can they? >> reporter: chuck, arizona is the place where barry goldwater gave birth to modern day conservatism. but with the passing of john mccain and the retirement of jeff flake, it's the democrat, kyrsten sinema, who is trying to take that mantle as the arizona maverick. she's been on the air waves highlighting herself as sort of that western independent where if you look at martha mcsally, the republican in this race, there's been a lack of images of arizona's past. instead she stood solidly behind president trump and though having conversations on the ground here, there's been many independents and republicans who have expressed frustration with mcsally standing by the president, namely, on that health care vote back in 2017 that would have weakened protections for those with pre-existing conditions. so with the absence of mccain and flake, it will be qu

vaughn hillyard there in arizona where the polls opened at 8:00 a.m.tern so i guess roughly 45 minutes ago. is that right? oh, no, an hour and 45. >> reporter: it's okay, you mentioned the number of ballots that came in, about 75 to 80% of ballots from arizona voters have already been mailed in, and so when you're looking at this race, i just want to throw up a little graphic there with kind of the numbers we're looking at. in terms of the ballots that have already come in, republicans have about a 7.5 percentage point advantage, but to note back in 2014, 2010, 2006, they had a 12% advantage so that number has dropped significantly in this race. i want to talk about the other part of the electorate here. it's not just republican independent voters. one-third of the arizona voting electorate here are independent voters. i want to introduce you to one of those individuals, kent butterman who we just met up here in prescott, arizona. this is what he just told us. are you registered to vote here? >> i am registered as an independent. >> reporter: how did y

and vaughn hillyard in arizona.arrett, starting with you, a lot of people think of texas as pretty red. how did this get to be such a competitive race, and which way do you see it heading this weekend? >> reporter: that's a great question, ari. look, this is a race where you've had the o'rourke candidacy which a lot of people wrote off early which has raised a ton of money, gotten a lot of tension. i'm with ted cruz today in victoria, texas, very conservative part of the state. and cruz is running on essentially a two-part strategy here. he is trying to hug president trump, make the point of what they've been able to accomplish in two years of a republican majority, talks a lot about the tax cut, a lot about rolling back regulations. then it's about disqualifying beto o'rourke and trying to paint him as too liberal for the state of texas. i've bounced back and forth between tehese two campaigns an two candidates and they're talking to almost entirely different e electric trots here. one of the thing that cruz says o

>> the united states senator cindy hyde-smith successfully evading nbc news' vaughn hillyard. vaughn does not make it a policy of chasing candidates to their cars. and maybe that's the right strategy. even with all her flaws, even with the coming of the blue wave of democratic wins this month in which democrats just picked up another house seat today in deep red utah -- we'll have more on that in a moment -- even in that environment, hyde-smith's democratic opponent mike espy has a seriously uphill battle to win an upset tomorrow. he'd be the first black senator for mississippi since reconstruction that is a heavy lift. here is cindy hyde-smith, and the more you talk, the more you get yourself in trouble. maybe the goal right now is to make to it the finish line, even if you have to run out the back door, purchase sued bs byu byed reporters. republicans are worried enough to be pouring money and resources into a race that ought to be a cakewalk. donald trump is currently in the midst of his second rally of the day in mississippi to get out the vote for hyde-smith, this one is i

let's turn to vaughn hillyard in prescott, arizona, where martha mcsally just finished an event. ghn, you heard from republicans and those who are flipping. what is the mood overall? >> this has long been a republican state and the question is how many individuals will the democrat kirsten sinema be able to bring over? it's split in the state, about a third republican, a third democrat, a third independent and martha mcsally needs to hold on and amp up that republican support here. we were at an event where she had about 200 folks here and what she's been looking to do with t and what the republican party has been trying to do is take down kirsten sinema. they've put millions on the television eairwaves in order t hammer home the message that kirsten sinema is a liberal instead of the blue dog democrat she's been known to become in congress, one important note is the green party candidate in the state dropped out and nbc news polling had the spread between sinema and mcsally at a six point advantage for sinema without the green party candidate in the mix. with the green party cand

. >> nbc's vaughn hillyard has been following closely. he is in ridgeland where espy is about to vote. will mississippi elect its first woman to congress or the state's first black senator since reconstruction? >> stephanie, this is a busy polling location, just on the outskirts of jackson. having the conversation here with voters on the ground, we've been trying to get a read. this is three weeks after election day. there's been a steady stream of voters coming in and out. some of these conversations, it's actually interesting. there's a lot of voters here that are unwilling to tell us who they are voting for. usually i think i'm pretty decent at getting folks to tell me. or voting for hyde-smith and would rather not talk about the controversies over race. one did tell us who he was voting for. do you mind giving us insight into what you're voting for here? >> smith. >> considered espy? >> yes. but the more i hear and remember about his time as the secretary of agricultural, i just don't trust him. >> anything about hyde-smith that gave

retires bring in nbc news political reporter vaughn hillyard down in new albany, mississippi. rter: good evening, rev. it's on the forefront of voter mind. when you go from the southern part of the state to mu albany up here it's the forefront of the mind, the topic of conversation. i want to play this little bit of sound. we left the second campaign event for cindy hyde smith. she the hadn't been on the campaign trail for days. final le we talked to her since that you could call it it a quasi apology. she said to those at the debate offended i certainly apologize. i asked the question up in the air particular will african-american voters here on the ground was what she was apologizing for and what it was she was acknowledging the impact of her comments. this is the interaction a fup moments ago. >> some peoplecy seeing your apology they questioned what you were apologizing for could you clarify. >> if i hurt anybody's feelings if i hurt anybody's feeling. we're just staying on the issues on people's mind that is lower taxes, less regulations, you know, second amendment all of

>> our thanks to vaughn hillyard. president is rallying sport sporters -- supporters in tupelo. i want to replay what she said. "if this were a public hanging, i'd be on the front row." >> she issued this apology. >> by anyone offended by my comments, i apologize. there was no ill will, no ill intent whatsoever in my statements. i also recognize that this comment was twisted and turned into a weapon to be used against me, a political weapon. >> how is her apology resonating? >> it wasn't an apology. she's reading a statement. when you're apologizing, you don't need to read the statement. she knows mississippi's history very, very well and she knows the kind of imagery that brings up, particularly when she's running against an african-american like espy. look, chances are she's going to be elected because that's just the way mississippi is, putting republicans -- electing republicans statewide. we haven't had a senators as soon as 1988 or '89 when they would have retired. the midterms ended last week and people haven't

nbc's vaughn hillyard is in phoenix, arizona, covering one of the country's closest senate races. what are voters telling you, vaughn, besides the fact that they're going to vote for a woman? >> reporter: that's the only hospitalizati option in this race, stephanie. it's martha mcsally running against kyrsten sinema. when you look at the numbers in this state, there's 1.3 million republicans, 1.1 million democratss, and then there's 1.2 million independents. over the last 24 hours we've been talking to voters here, outside the arizona state university football game. it was interesting, republicans and independents, a great number of them are telling us that they intend to vote for the democrat, kyrsten sinema. i'm going to introduce you to two of them. the first you'll here from, susan, is a republican and the second, dennis, is an independent. who did you vote for? >> sinema. >> reporter: why? >> i believe in the democrat party's agenda much more than the republicans. the republican party is not the same as it used to be. >> reporter: you considered yourself republican, consider y

. >> joining me now from jackson, mississippi, is nbc news political regarder vaughn hillyard. in an article you co-wrote, it says this. racial tension permeates the air in this state like humidity. i wonder what you're hearing from voters today and how much that's on their minds. >> reporter: good afternoon, chris. it is on voters' minds. actually, there's a nice older couple that just walked in here. we were hoping to catch them on their way out. to be frank, they are white voters. they said they vote republican here in the state of mississippi. the gentleman we just talked to, on november 6th, he voted for cindy hyde-smith, yet he's going in right now to vote in the democrat in this race. so what role does race play in it? he said he's tired of the stereotypes. we've heard this from particularly republicans, a good number of republicans that are tired of the stereotypes of mississippi. yet at the same time, this is a tall task for mike espy to overcome, purely based on the numbers. we've also talked to just as many republicans here today and over the last several days that h

nbc's vaughn hillyard is actually here in new york. he doesn't just live on a dairy or corn field, he's sitting next to me now. you spent election night in arizona. are you surprised with how tight we are? >> not surprised that in maricopa county, they're still counting ballots. about 350,000 of those are out of maricopa county. and what we're looking at is the ballots they announced yesterday, about those 130,000 ballots, though were going sinema. every day, the county is announcing updated results at 5:00 p.m. we expect sinema to expand that. so the question is, monday, tuesday, wednesday, as those updated results come in, will mcsally be able to chip away at the lead that sinema has incurred. >> in going goieorgia, abrams lm insists there's enough counted balance out there that could change the outcome of this race. nbc's morgan ratford. >> millions of georgia voters are trying to wait to see who their next governor will be. between kemp and democratic abrams. that's a polling of 50.3 versus 7. you need more than 50% of the vote to

vaughn hillyard is in tempe where the mood has to be good. the sun devils getting the oute.o speed on this sunday morning. >> reporter: yeah, we were at the arizona state football game yesterday talking with a lot of independents, but also republicans. and that is a question that we have to look at in this race. voter registration-wise, there is 1.3 billion republicans in this state. 1.1 million democrats. but also 1.2 million independents. and it is a matter of where do these independents go and also republicans. and i want to play you a bit of sound with a couple of those individuals that we spoke to yesterday and their take on martha mcsally's decision to stand solidly behind president trump. this is what they told us. >> who did you vote for? >> sinema. >> are you republican? >> yes, but i'm changing to the democratic party. i believe in their platform. >> you consider yourself republican. independent now. there is a lot of other people in arizona, how did that happen, why is that the case. >> >> well, the republicans have lost their way. the republican party is a joke a

nbc's vaughn hillyard joins me now from a corn and soybean farm. this is a rural area. largely very conservative. it's amazing a guy like steve king who has been in office for as long as he has is actually losing some big donorings. >> stephanie, for republicans, this is not the district we should be standing in just four days out. this is a district donald trump won. in just two years, steve king himself won it by 22%. you look at steve king's comments. he's tweeted out that diversity is not our strength, retweeted white supremacist views. he's facing quite a modest 38-year-old democratic who has been going around the district in an rv. also here, the constituents in this district, this is a very rural district here. i want to bring in one farmer here. you voted for steve king in the past. >> yes, i have. >> you consider yourself conservative? >> probably more conservative than liberal. >> how will you vote? >> probably steve king. however, i still have j.d. in my mind. i haven't pulled the plug yet. >> what is making you pause? what is making you think about this? bec

vaughn hillyard in arizona. let's go from the west to the former gateway from the west, st. louis, missouri. republican josh holly, claire mccaskill locked in a tight race. the president is making his rounds with a cup of guests that's it's clearly not suburban america they're campaigning in. >> reporter: as youhension ment the president is coming here and this is really his final pitch ahead of tomorrow's election. and he's saying, one, he's trying to convince missouri voters that control of the senate could come down to this state. but josh holly like the president has also said this mid-term election is about security. one securing the borders but two securing president trump's victory. hawley said the democrats are still mad about the last presidential election, so he told voters every single vote they've had in the last year they're going to see stripped away if they do not vote republican. here in missouri regardless of who people say they're voting for. >> and missouri, not an early voting state, so it's

. >> nbc's vaughn hillyard was at that debate, joins me from jackson, mississippi. senator hide smith was a heavy favorite. the race started to close after she made those comments. this is a state that has known racial violence. give us a sense of what happened on that stage and more importantly how voters are reacting to it all. >> reporter: exactly. i'll take you, chris, to where mike espy will be in the next half hour. we're three hours from jackson, mississippi where the debate was last night. mike espy will be complaining here in a delta region, his old congressional district he served. a highly concentrated black population. he's going to be visiting this cotton gin behind us here. what he needs to do is turn out a very large concentration of the black voting population here in the state. thai looki if they're able to get 95% of the black vote and 20% of the white house vote, they think they'll be able to pull it off in the runoff next tuesday. what you heard yesterday and last night was mike espy after the debate actually, he is -- that is when he was more sp

. >> vaughn hillyard, jackson, mississippi. let me bring in henry barber.ing the mississippi back super pac that's backing cindy hide smith in the race. joel payne is with me as well. joel was the director of african american paid media for the 2016 hillary clinton campaign. gentlemen, thank you for your time. henry, let's start with this visit from the president. what does a visit from president trump, the day before the election, what will that do for cindy hyde smith in mississippi in. >> we're expecting a lower turnout. it's going to encourage people on both sides to turn out. it's going to remind them that we've got this big election tomorrow, and so i think it's going to juice turnout. i also think it's going to help bring the issues to forefront that mississippi voters are going to have a choice. if you want to vote for someone who is going to be in lock step with nancy pelosi, vote for mike espy. if you want someone with donald trump, cindy hyde-smith is your choice. >> joel, so much of this race is about things cindy hyde-smith has said. are those

here's nbc's vaughn hillyard in arizona today. >> who did you vote for, sinema? >> the democrat. >> do you usually vote democrat? >> no. >> the republican party is not the same it used to be. >> do you usually vote democrat? >> no. >> registered republican. >> so why vote for sinema then? >> to change things up. not too happy with the state of the republican party right now. >> i'm a former republican and i'm taking a break from voting for any republicans as long as donald trump is president. >> why not martha mcsally, though, she's not donald trump. >> she's a republican and she'll support his policies. >> president obama had this to say about republicans crossing over to vote for democrats this time. >> a former republican congressman, david jolly just cast his vote, he voted for andrew gillum. he said, the reason is simple, is because i have served with ron desantis. i don't imagine congressman jolly and mayor gillum agree on a lot, but maybe they just like all of us agree that there's some things bigger than politics. and that's on the ballot right now. what

. >> let's try to figure out a few more answers to that, vaughn hillyard in mississippi, thank you veryws international correspondent steve kornacki is at the big board with us. steve, how many -- i'm sorry, sutton marks, the man vaughn interviewed, how many of them does mike espy need to pull off this race? >> basically mike espy needs there to be more voters like that than we've seen in modern times in mississippi. mississippi politics have been probably the most polarized electorate probably in the kun the. this is a runoff, three candidates squared off on election day. you see two of them were republicans, espy/hyde-smith getting the two most votes there. espy, look at the basically 41% he got on election day in the preliminary. compare that to how democrats normally do in mississippi and you're going to see, look, that's what clinton got in 2016. hillary clinton got 40%. how about barack obama, in 2012, a little bit better, he got 44%. still lost by double digits. 2008, barack obama got 43%, right up where the ceiling basically has been for democrats in mississippi, the low to mayb

running away from questions from vaughn hillyard about her racially charged comments.old a supporter she'd be on the front row at a public hanging. she said voter suppression might be a great idea. she posed in a picture with confederate artifacts which she captioned, mississippi history at its best. and this weekend the jackson free press reported she attended a segregation academy in the 1970s. president trump will hold a rally to bolster support for hyde-smi hyde-smith. republicans may need all the help they can get because this race has them holding their breath. republicans think cindy hyde-smith will ultimately pull out a win in the special senate election on tuesday. but the race has tightened and after what happened in alabama last year, they are on edge. a swirl of controversy surrounding the republican senator has given democrat mike espy momentum in the home stretch, officials from both parties say. hyde-smith has never trailed in polling and democrats acknowledge she's likely to win but they acknowledge her flubs have given espy a narrow opening if everythi

it turned out, once our own vaughn hillyard did the math there, the election day vote in maricopa county, which is more than half of arizona, had ch actually been won by sinema. once that became apparent that was the case there was no path for mcsally. it's been inevitable since thena >> balance control in the senate, what the margin is in that senate, what it actually looks like and what it means fon 2020, there is a seismic change in arizona and maricopa county. maricopa county which elected joe arpaio year after year after year is one of those places, they provided the margin to sinema.ro >> go back further, barry gold water, mr. conservative.ld when bill clinton was reelect ed in 1996 to carry arizona, they've had their eyes on the state for a while. in 2016 trump still made it to arizona by 3 1/2, 4 points. it's one of those suburban areas in the sunbelt. you could say around the phoenix area, around the dallas area, around the houston area, the atlanta area, i think that might be one of the new shifts. we saw a lot of suburban areas in the north -- the midwest in 2016 turn against

vaughn hillyard asked tore had clarify and got this response. >> we are going to an event.guys. >> senator, can i ask you a question about race? it's an issue on voter -- why not speak about the issue of race? there's a lot of people we've talked to across the state that are concerned about your remarks and what you are apologizing for. senator, why not speak to this issue? your comments offended a great number of people, senator. no, you vanity. i'm wondering -- what is it that you're apologizing for? >> let's bring in tonight's "hardball" round table. anita kumar, white house correspondent for mcclatchy susan page, washington bureau chief, managing editor of the beat. that sounds interesting these days, the beat. thank you. she's made these comments about hanging as being a hot ticket for going to see the lakers players or something, going to a hanging is -- i don't know what she's talking about. segregation academies and this other stuff about it was a real joke, voter suppression, really fun. your thoughts? >> and yet she's still up in the polls. we're calling it a tigh

our own vaughn hillyard, he got an exclusive interview with vice president mike pence and i want to sharead to say about whitaker's appointment. >> whitaker has background as both a u.s. attorney and as chief of staff at the justice department. that fully qualifies him to be our acting attorney general and the president thought he was simply the best choice to do that. >> should the american public not be concerned about the special counsel -- >> the american people can be very confident that the right steps will be taken. look, this administration has fully cooperated with the special counsel. we've literally provided, i think, over a million documents to the special counsel. and i think the american people can be confident that we'll continue to cooperate. >> what do you think? >> i don't think matt whitaker is qualified for the job. and i think more startlingly concerning is the obvious motive that donald trump has to place matt whitaker at the helm of the mueller investigation. and it's from his own words and his own tweets that we know what's in his head. and then you know what matt

political reporter vaughn hillyard just back from arizona. >> that's your home, isn't it?'s my homeland. >> since it's your homeland, we hear a lot of votes are coming out of kyrsten sinema's -- >> maricopa county. >> is that the majority of the votes? did democrats and political analysts who are looking at where the votes are coming from, do they right now give the advantage over the next week? >> maricopa county is about 75% of the remaining vote that's out. this is phoenix. this is -- essentially makes up 60% of the state. the total electorate is in scottsdale, phoenix, glendale, tempe. this is the heart of the suburbs. donald trump won it by about four percentage points back in 2012, and what we're going to see is every day we're going to get announcements at 7:00 p.m. eastern. these were early ballots that were dropped off to the county between friday and monday. and what we've seen across these other states, they're trending toward democrats. we expect sinema to expand their lead. the question is come sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, this is where mcsally believes